Suggestions please - what's Doug saying to Pearsey?

Pleasant sunshine and being able to park the car in the Hotel’s private courtyard made the preparations and departure fairly straightforward and I kept out of the way for a change, so I could finish off yesterday’s report and post it on the Blog.  For once I had slept until after 6am – and so therefore had Ben so I was behind the game.  There was another small difficulty checking out of the Hotel after the Team left but nothing too serious, so I was on my way fairly quickly too.

The Team were in good heart, boosted I suppose by yesterday’s fast and not too punishing ride over a similar distance.  there was talk of more hills today, but they were distinctly upbeat.

Our unsmiling host who had been dubbed Laughing Harry, not entirely fairly because I did see him smile in a sickly sort of way, was mean with his ice.  He was not mean in other respects (the breakfast  was very good) so I suppose he was either ill equipped to make ice or incredibly mean with it.  All he was prepared to let me have for our cool box was a dozen or so ice cubes.  I have yet to find anywhere in France a source of bagged ice.  The supermarkets simply don’t stock it.  If anyone out there has any suggestion they would be well received.

But I was at least able to stock up with baguettes before leaving the Town – and some pastries as a surprise treat for the Team and a new pair of sun glasses for Tom, who’d  broken his carefully selected fashion shades and was resorting to a non-sports pairs, which is apparently distinctly non-U in this game.  “Sports shades please,” he said emphatically “preferably white, to look cool – and not too expensive”.  “I’ll try” I replied.

Preparation in the Hotel courtyard

Nice weather, nice roads so the Team were again making good progress as I tried to catch them up for their drink stop.  Having overtaken to scout for a place to stop I also dropped on a very nice little picnic site with all the basic requirements – which are somewhere to sit or flop and (thankfully) somewhere with a bit of shade.  Access to somewhere to find a bit of privacy for a few moments is also a necesity.personal to evacuate fluids to found a nice little picnic site too, so that worked well.   Had to fight my way past lots of old ladies being obstructive with their trolleys, so that’s an international thing in supermarkets, but you don’t need to know about my minor obstacles.

Ready to go

The Team were roaring along and looked very much the part as I passed them, so I left them to it and moved ahead.  I came upon a picnic site slightly ahead of the planned stop but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush in these matters so I stopped and set out my refreshment stall and in due course the ungrateful lot wound me up by pretending not to want to stop.

Morale is getting dangerously high; I shall have to find a way of suggesting pointedly that it’s not a good plan to bite the hand that might not feed you tomorrow.

However I didn’t deny them the treat pastries, which I probably should have done because they ate the lot and I didn’t get one.  I had resigned myself to the real possibility that the Glande, my personal favourite among French pastries, would not survive their selection process but Liz didn’t get one either and therefore eight pastries were eaten by only six riders.

I warned Hilary before she married him that his eyes were far too close together!

Lacking proof positive of who the culprits were, all I can do is share the picture with you of one particular rider appearing to eat an éclair remarkably quickly and also somewhat messily when chalenged.  You may draw your own conclusions.  It might not have been his second, it could have been his third.

Tom looked distinctly doubtful about his new shades.  They were sun shades and they were white but they were branded “Revlon” so he decided they were girlie shades.  Fortunately the Team rallied round and convinced Tom they look really cool and indeed Tom agreed with this verdict when he saw someone else wearing them.  They are girlie of course; I’ll give him the free powder puff that came with them at the end of the Tour.

Onward again they rode and again I cleared up and hung back, indeed I’d spotted that were now short of bananas again, so I went back a couple of miles to top up.  You wouldn’t believe how many bananas we are getting through – we might even be having an impact on world market in bananas.

This was my second encounter of the day with unscrupulous French ladies barging in at a supermarket checkouts, so I shall have to start developing some anti-terrorist defensive trolley driving techniques if I’m to avoid unnecessary delays.

Where's my pastry?

The Team had done over ten miles since the drink stop, which is a measure of both their pace and the delaying effect of French ladies.  The revised plan after the slightly early stop was for me to drive ahead for another 25 miles to find a suitable picnicking spot for lunch.

In the way these things sometimes work out there were no suitable picnic places to be found, even though I drove a few miles beyond the agreed distance to make sure.  It was therefore the original, Ben-planned on-the-satnav lunch stop to which I resorted, which had three cafe/restaurants to choose from.  I parked up to do a recce.

The first one I looked at was empty of customers and I soon worked out why.  The second was closed but right next where I’d parked across the road was a bar/cafe which looked more promising, which on closer inspection it was.

No stop is complete without some physio

I sent a text to Ben (which is proving to be a useful way of communicating) and settled down at a table with an umbrella sun shade with a small beer to await their arrival.  This was much more like what I thought I would be letting myself in for when I volunteered to drive the support car.  Sitting in the shade sipping beer with nothing to do but wait for half an hour or so was very enjoyable.

But I’m going to have to find a way of slowing them down; these guys are getting far too good at this endurance riding stuff.  I’d barely got half way down my small beer and only just got the laptop going to write this report when they turned up, well ahead of expectations.  As I type this bit they are tucking into pizzas and Coca Colas for their lunch as a change from baguettes, cheese and ham and very pleased they are too.  They’re nice pizzas and quite large.   I suppose that might slow them down a bit this afternoon and I might just get properly ahead of them for the next drink stop.

Environmental impact taking place

They must have been reading my mind because PK suggested that they do without an afternoon drink stop and ride the 28 remaining miles to the Hotel in one go, about two hours.  That let me off a hook and allowed me to ride ahead to find a cycle shop to buy some spares before I check in at the Hotel.  It was basic, as intended to keep costs for the riders down, but perfectly adequate.  Luck was with us and there was a cycle shop only 200 meters down the road in one direction and a pharmacy (for knee supports) only 100 meters in the other.

Yet more stretching

However, the day was not yet over.  As I waited for the Team to arrive a spectacular thunderstorm broke over the Town.  Lightning, thunder, rain coming down like stair rods, it was the whole works.  It also persisted and I became concerned about the Team riding into Town in those conditions on a road carrying substantial commercial traffic.  I set off back along the route to find them.

Happiness is pizza shaped

They were still ten miles away and still riding in sunshine.  The thunderstorm was pourely a local affair over the Town, possibly just over our Hotel.  I turned round again and tucked in behind; deciding I might as well makew myself useful for the last few miles as a buffer against overtaking traffic.

Traffic came upon us periodically including plenty of lorries and they were all keen to overtake.  I put my hazard lights on and stayed close behind.  Apart from times when one rider swerved out to overtake another one without looking, which put him at considerable danger, they were OK.

The same rider was prone to doing this and he has had encouragement to resist it. Apart from this the Team were OK, the risk was modest and it was well covered.  Nothing like as bad as the A2 became in Kent on our first day.

Only a few miles to go now

The Team had clearly scared the thunderstorm away and they entered Gray over a lovely, flower-bedecked bridge in a way which was little short of splendid.

Safer than this picture suggests

These guys are now riding well together and at pace; they have got themselves fitter than when they started off by doing these long, long rides and short of injury they should all now finish the course.

That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy; they’ve got to climb the Alps yet, but it’s now do-able, by a bunch of previously non-cycling and not very fit office workers.  Their families can however be justifiably proud of what they are achieving, as can those who have donated to this worthy cause.

Entering Gray

The Team is earning your sponsorship donations, no doubt about that at all.

In the absence of a swimming pool .....

This is not a holiday or a business trip when someone else is paying; the Team are paying all their own costs and everything which is donated via their Virgin Money Giving website will go the cancer Research of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Liz, now in a commanding position

The Team are very grateful for the interest being shown in this Blog and they are usually keen to read it themselves over breakfast, as hopefully you will continue to be.

As a postscript on Day Five,  I have to confess that I tripped and stumbled into Liz in what must have looked remarkably like a deliberate rugby tackle as we were walking through the Town to find somewhere to eat.  With remarkable strength Liz kept both of us upright, for which I was most grateful.  Liz has now acquired legendary status among the Team who are now all terrified of her and I’ve resolved not to risk even a small beer at lunch tiome from now on.

And as we rise from our slumbers on Day Six there’s heavy rain outside.  Let’s hope for the riders’ sakes that it doesn’t last long.